Update: Hunt for Shane Miller is over: Loaded gun found next to remains

The Humboldt County's Coroner's office confirmed Sunday the human remains recovered near Petrolia on Friday night belong to Humboldt County native Shane Miller, who was wanted in connection with the shooting deaths of his wife and two young daughters.

"Using dental records the remains have been positively identified as Shane Franklin Miller, age 46 of Shingletown, California," a release from the office states. "Additional examination of Mr. Miller's remains will be conducted this week."

No cause of death was listed.

According to the Shasta County Sheriff's Office, a loaded gun was found next to the body.

"The remains were located in a draw surrounded by heavy vegetation approximately 1,500 feet east of where Shane Miller's vehicle was located. The remains were partially covered in silt from water runoff during rainy conditions," the release states. "The remains were clothed in a sweatshirt, pants and boots. Adjacent to the remains was a FNH Five-Seven 5.7X28 mm handgun with a loaded magazine. Three additional loaded FNH magazines were adjacent to the handgun. The blue tipped polymer ammunition in the magazines was consistent with ammunition located in Shane Miller's truck and at the homicide scene in Shingletown."

The positive ID was made by county forensic odontologist Dr. William Farrell.

Miller, 45, was the subject of a massive manhunt in the Mattole Valley last May. Authorities say he gunned down his wife Sandy and daughters Shelby Miller, 8, and Shasta Miller, 4, in their Shingletown home in Shasta County on May 7, 2013, before fleeing 200 miles to the Humboldt County, where he abandoned his truck and the family dog.

The remains were discovered Friday after an anonymous party reported finding them on the river bank of the Mattole River in Petrolia. The Petrolia Volunteer Fire Department was first to the scene and contacted the sheriff's office around 11 p.m.

Humboldt County deputies and members of the Department of Justice were called to process the scene and collect the remains. Humboldt deputies also contacted their Shasta counterparts as the body's location was within the area where Miller had previously eluded law enforcement.

Miller made contact with a woman he had a past relationship with in Petrolia the day after his family was found dead, and his truck was later found on Mattole Road. High school friends and others who knew him during his time in Humboldt told the Times-Standard that he had outdoor survival skills and knows the wilderness area where he was last seen.

Miller was added to the U.S. Marshals Service's "15 Most Wanted" list last July, with a wanted poster that describes him as "an individual who has no regard for human life" and the only suspect in his family's "cold-blooded murder."

Miller's criminal history includes arrests for possession of a firearm, ammunition, cultivation of marijuana, resisting an officer, and hit-and-run causing death or injury. In 2007, Miller was released from federal custody after serving a 46-month sentence for possession of a machine gun and marijuana cultivation.

Last June, officials searched an underground bunker on a property east of Redding that belongs to Miller. Investigators told the Redding Record Searchlight that search teams found the prefabricated bunker, but no sign of Miller. Inside the bunker, deputies found a "large cache of weapons and ammunition," including various types of rifles, shotguns and handguns, the paper reported.